(Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
Earlier today, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Dallas Mavericks 134-131 behind 61 points from Damian Lillard, tying a career-high (Click here to watch the highlights). With the victory, the Trail Blazers are now 34-39, moving up to 8th place in the Western Conference standings. Should they win out, they will guarantee themselves a spot in the play in series to determine the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs. The still-undefeated-in-the-bubble Phoenix Suns and Memphis Grizzlies are both .5 games back at 33-39.
Last week on Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley boldly predicted that if the Trail Blazers make the playoffs, they'll upset the Lakers and reach the NBA Finals. While a lot of Sir Charles' predictions get made fun of, he could be right about the Trail Blazers. Given the lack of home court advantage in the Orlando bubble, the odds of upsets in the playoffs go up by a lot. A major reason for why we don't see more upsets in the NBA playoffs is home court advantage. Winning on the road in the NBA is not easy and in the playoffs, being at home is a huge help to a team's chances of winning. They get more calls, the crowd gets them going, etc. It's the nature of the NBA.
With home court advantage not being in effect this year, we should see an NBA playoffs format that much more closely mirrors the NCAA Tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, we see a lot of teams win with their guard play. A guard gets hot and explodes for a lot of points. We've seen this with Jimmer Fredette, Stephen Curry, and many other guards. In the NBA, Damian Lillard is capable of doing just that. And not only do the Trail Blazers have Lillard. They also have a very talented shooting guard alongside Lillard in CJ McCollum. While Lillard is averaging 29.3 points per game, McCollum isn't far off, averaging 22.4 points per game. That is a really nice scoring punch in the backcourt!
In addition to an explosive backcourt, the Trail Blazers also have a terrific frontcourt anchored by Hassan Whiteside (15.6 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks) and Jusuf Nurkic (18.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks). As an added bonus, the Trail Blazers also have Carmelo Anthony popping in 15.4 points per game. When you look at this Trail Blazers team, it is clear that they have a lot going for them. They got terrific guards, a terrific set of big men, and a seasoned veteran who can give them an extra scoring punch.
Now, as for whether or not they can come out of the West, the odds are still not in their favor. They still need to take care of business in the rest of their regular season and hang on to win the play in tournament. But if they can do that and get to a first round match up with the Lakers, I don't see why they can't go the distance. They're getting hot at the right time and seem to really believe they can shock the world. It will be fun to see if they are able to prove Barkley right.
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